"In
the late stages of the war, the USCT really began to make its presence
felt. Nearly one in every eight soldiers in the siege of Peter's burg
was black. and at the Battle of Nashville, where Maj. Gen. George H.
Thomas 's troops crushed the Confederate Army of Tennessee and put a
halt to Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood's Tennessee invasion, black forces
played a major role despite their comparatively small size. On the first
day of fighting, the two black brigades attacked the Confederate right
to draw resources away from the main Federal thrust on the Rebel left
flank, which was successful. During the second day, black and white
troops swarmed up the slick slopes of the Confederate position on
Overton Hill. "I can hear the voices the officers as they called out,
'Close up those ranks,' " recalled an officer in the USCT, "as great
gaps were made in them by howiitzer and grape shot guns loaded to the
muzzle." Although they did not break the Confederate line, these troops
again forced the Confederates high command to transfer men to its right,
which weakened the left and facilitated its fall to Federal attackers.
Black units sustained 630 casualties out of 3,500 men in the victory."

J.
T. Glatthaar, Forged in Battle, p167

"When
I went to the War, I was turning seventeen. I was in the Battle of
Nashville, when we whipped old General Hood. I went to see my mistress
on my furlough, and she was glad to see me. She said, 'You remember when
you were sick and had to bring you to the house and nurse you?" And I
told her, "Yes m, I remember. " And she said, "And now, you are fighting
me?" I said, "No'm, I ain't fighting you. I'm fighting to get free. "